Simone is a seminal virtual reality film, albeit one which is unlikely to come
about. You see, the technologies presented in Simone were developed in isolation,
by one person/team. Whilst that is plausible for some of them, such as the pure-VR
techniques, for others such as the photo manipulation techniques, this style
of development is unlikely. Thus, everything in the film has to be taken with
just a pinch of salt.

However, there are several aspects of both the technology of VR and the social
impact, which the film carries off very well, and which deserve to stand on
their own merits. One of these is of course one part of the driving point of
the film; avatar embodiment.

Disillusioned, fading film director Viktor Taransky doesn't just bring Simone
to life, as the perfect actress to work in his films --although that is what
he believes he is doing. With all the work he pours into her, body, mind and
soul, after a while he becomes Simone.

Whilst the film explores the limits of becoming a purely virtual avatar at
least using contemporary technology, it also goes out of its way to show ways
that the virtual can be leveraged in order to make the avatar-self so real it
can function as an independent person in the greater world. In effect, Viktor
becomes Simone almost as a legal entity. The self same thing is just as possible
with actual avatar systems, at least once our technology evolves to the point
it catches up with the film.

Happily, we are not that far away.

What that will mean when we get there, or even just a few years away when we
get closer, is impossible to say at this stage. The film does deal with the
identity crisis situation where after a while Viktor begins to resent Simone
for her success, with a type of disassociative personality disorder forming,
and he begins to punish her (him) for the negative effect he starts to perceive
on his life as she takes over.

The film never touches on the possibility of Simone being a physical being,
even virtually, able to feel sensory input and deliver that back to Viktor's
mind, so its predictive abilities as to what happens when that level of immersion
is involved, are moot. But then it was focussing on the nebulous, ethereal quality
of Simone and how she was literally intangible. This is something our avatars
don't have to be. Still, if the film had focussed on that, it would not be the
same film it is now.

We are not touching on the aspect of controlling Simone's body as though
it truly were Victor's own here, that is covered in the sister article Lessons
from Simone: MoCap Filter.

However, as Viktor discovered, and as many thousands with one form of bodily
disassociative disorder or another, also discover with our more limited contemporary
avatar systems, is that by placing your mind effectively in the body of another
person, whether that person is your idealised star, or your idealised self,
doors which were otherwise unobtainable to you, do and can open.

In the film, Simone was an actress who starred in box office success after
box office success, became a pop singer, and even went into politics in the
end. Simone herself didn't have much of a mind; she drew on successful ways
of speaking and moving from famous women from previous years. However, all the
talent, all the control was Viktor. Essentially, his talent was expressed in
her acting, in her singing, in her success. His views, thoughts and feelings
continually came to the surface through her.

This is what embodiment in an avatar truly means, and what it truly offers.
In the end Viktor was almost lost to Simone, and had to 'kill' her to try and
get his own self-identity back. That backfired spectacularly as by that time
Simone was so real to everybody else, that he was convicted of her murder.

The avatar embodies the person to be what they could be, what they would be
if they trulty had that body, and it was them. Sometimes it can be an eye opening
experience. Sometimes, it may be a better way to live. At others, you have to
be very very careful, or the Viktor would be gone, and Simone the only mind
remaining.

Then again, some would argue that that may be exactly what they are looking
for.